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Dwarven Language
The Dwarves speak a unique language influenced by Old Norse and Germanic. The language sees use in Dwarven ceremonies and is maintained by the Head Scribe, Aanker. The Dwarven Language began with the god Ur, and is written in special runes. A phonetic equivalent exists for those who read and write in the Latin Alphabet. The Ancestral Language The Ancestral Language is the Dwarven language which served as a foundation primarily for the cities of Erthir, Urahamr and Solgrundir. It is characterized by the typical ending of nouns with -ir, -r and -a. The Ancient Dwarven Gods, first and foremost of which is Ur, are named according to this pattern as well. Nowadays the Ancestral Language has understandably been worn down in a number of ways. Lingual erosion has eliminated most usage of the pure -r ending (Urahamr) and the cultural exchange between multiple Dwarven holds throughout history has introduced new words which sometimes entirely break the otherwise regular pattern of their Ancestral counterparts. This means that, in practice, Dwarves mostly save proper usage of the Ancestral Language for the naming of only the most significant or religious sites. Pronunciation This is a very quick guide on how to pronounce most of the letters and syllables of the Ancestral Language. The rundown only includes letters which actually exist. Basic Dwarven Letters Syllables and letter combinations * Aa - Say 'aaaaaah' * Ain - The first part is like 'A' as in 'As', then immediately followed by a regular English 'Y' like in 'Yes' and then -n. Think 'Ayn' * Ao - A peculiar combination, pronounced like 'U' as in 'Urn' * Aur - Unsurprisingly, pronounced simply like 'ar' in 'War', but with the rolling 'R', of course * Ll (L-L) - this approximates the English 'Y', like in 'Yes' * St - Can be pronounced like Sht for added flavour Grammar Nouns - when naming gods, religious locations and the like Nouns are divided into three grammatical genders: masculine, neuter and feminine. These are significant in that they have different patterns of inflection and affect the suffix (ending) chosen for the adjectives attached to them. The first letter in any noun is always capitalized. * Nominative ('basic' form - Cat), genitive ('possessive' form - Cat's) and accusative (the person or object being acted upon) will be familiar to anyone who has studied the basics of language. So will singular (a 'cat') and plural ('cats'). The Dwarven language has two additional forms: Coupled (instead of 'financial crisis', 'financialcrisis'; nouns can be merged at will in this fashion as long as the first noun is written in the so-called coupled form) and Movement (used for objects or locations which the subject, e.g. the acting object or person, is moving to/at, from, on or relative to). * Definitive form is achieved by adding a non-capitalized 'u' before the word in the following fashion: u-(word). This applies to both singular and plural forms. For instance, u-Erthir means 'the earth' whereas Erthir means only 'earth'. Note that the way u- is written in front of the word has no bearing on pronounciation, the 'u' is still pronounced in front of and separately from the noun it belongs to (similar to 'the'). The tables below show the general patterns through the use of three words representative of each gender. There is also a fourth form, the 'holy' nouns that end on -inn. These nouns are never inflected, perhaps as a reflection of their religious significance. Nouns ending on -inn are found mostly within Donkeyist circles. Verbs The grammar engine running behind the verbs is fairly basic. Verbs come in three flavours, unrelated to the genders that apply for the nouns above. These flavours are based on the endings of the infinitive tenses (to 'dig', to 'mine', to 'speak'): either -a, -u or -i. Dwarven verbs come in the tenses infinite, present (he 'mines'), future (he 'will mine'), imperfect (in Dwarven, this is both, he 'was mining' e.g. English past imperfect and he 'mined' e.g. English perfect), present perfect (he 'has mined') and then passive forms of all previously mentioned tenses (he 'is mined'; now that would be a weird situation ). Passive form is not included in the verb table (see below) because it simply consists of the addition of -s at the end of the word, no matter the tense. Dwarven verbs are not affected by the subject in the clause, e.g. they do not act like English verbs, which are affected most notably by the number of actors (compare 'he mines' to 'they mine'). Adjectives The adjectives of the Ancestral Language constitute a disparate group of words unified only by their common suffix, -ak, : i.e. Thurak ('strong'), Oorak ('hard'), Sisak ('high') This is the simple form (not related to the positive form!) of the adjective, used only when spoken or written on its own, without any related nouns in the same clause, sentence or phrase. For instance: : "How high is that mountain?" : "High" In the first phrase, the adjective is tied to the noun mountain, and per the rules presented below, will be inflected appropriately. In the second phrase (or more appropriately, expression), the adjective is entirely independent of any noun. Because this is mostly an occurence in spoken language, consider it a triviality for now. When tied to a noun, the adjective will lose the '-ak' suffix and instead adopt the suffix (whether that be nominative, genitive, accusative etc.) used by the noun it describes. For instance: : u-Stika arkunn u-Erthur oorur : The spear struck the hard earth/ground Note that Erthur is accusative form, and thus Oorur along with it. Comparison is made through the use of prefixes. Positive form is the basic form used when the adjective is attached to a noun (a 'good' brew) and thus it has no prefix, comparative (a 'better' brew) and superlative (the 'best' brew) have prefixes, however. The prefixes are pronounced briefly separately from the adjectives to which they belong, to signify their grammatical status*. The prefixes are applied in the same manner to both the simple and inflected adjectives (e.g. simple form, 'do I need to climb higher?' - 'yes, higher'; inflected, 'he climbed higher'). In the table below, Thurak ('strong') is used as an example. This also means that for superlatives, extra weight can be added to the pronunciation of Os for dramatic effect. Adverbs Adverbs are based on adjectives and are formed by replacing the adjective simple form suffix with the adverb suffix '-ta', for example: : Ulmak ('Clever!') - Ulmta ('to speak cleverly') An Example Let's use a familiar phrase as an example. : The Hammer Strikes Hard on the Iron, Yet Harder Still on its Foes The Hammer is the subject of this clause and is thus left in nominative form: u-Hamr. Strikes is the present form of strike ('Arku'): ark. Hard is in this case an adverb, thus: oorta. It (the hammer) strikes on (Dwarven: an) the iron, thus iron (Dwarven: Eirr) must be in accusative (if it had been descends instead of strikes, then we would instead pick the movement form of iron): u-Eirur. Yet (Dwarven: Hak) is succeeded by harder, which is the comparative form of the adverb: an-oorta. Still is translated into 'un', a general emphasis word used in contexts like these (think: 'harderer'). 'On' is, again, 'an'. 'Its' is the genitive form of 'it' (Hamr is neutre, thus the neutre form of 'it' is chosen, Dwarven: Ar): Eis (Ar in genitive would theoretically be Aeis, but this irregular word is instead turned into its suffix when inflected). Foes (Dwarven: Heina) is plural accusative: Heinenaur. Thus the complete translation (although direct), is: : u-Hamr ark oorta an u-Eirur, hak an-oorta un an eis heinenaur Knai KNAI! is the battlecry of the Dwarves, and while the on-server history of the word is central to our heritage and culture, I thought it would be appropriate to give the word some language-anchored meaning. Naturally, this would be tightly knit to the actual origin of the word. Knai is a verb, in infinite (per the grammatical lore text), so it seems only natural that it would mean what it was always intended to mean. Knai means: to laugh, or rather to laugh loudly and heartedly. This reflects the nature of Knai's origins from LMAO. For imperative (Shout! Attack! Get the ball!) the Dwarves simply use the infinite form of the verb. Using this, we understand the full meaning of Knai. When Dwarves bellow Knai to each other, they want to hear laughter, a mocking laughter of confidence against the enemy and an encouraging laughter of fighting eagerness for themselves. Example phrase: "An uda Taga, knai uus u-Heinaur! Knai, vor En tallit Skaglur in Ereis Skuular!" "On this day, laugh at the enemy! Laugh, for we shall serve mountain ale in their skulls!" Runes Because runes are often literally etched in stone, they have changed little over the years compared to the language for which they were originally invented. Runic writing is seen as both an artform and common knowledge, 'easy to learn but hard to master'. The picture is complicated by the existance of two separate systems of runic writing. On one hand, there is the slightly more spacious, but also more imposing and formal Altr Sriftr ('Proud Writing'). On the other, there is the efficient and elegant (but nonetheless informal) Thikasriftr ('Linewriting'). There are no exact rules on when or where to use either system; the preferences are mostly decided at an institutional or personal level. However, for writing letters, the Dwarves prefer the Altr Sriftr. One consideration that has to be made by anyone attempting to write these letters out along a wall is that while the Thikasriftr is more simple in its geometry and form, it lacks some of the unique features of the Altr Sriftr which make that particular form of writing more practical in certain situations. Altr Sriftr The Altr Sriftr is tall and proud. It carries some formality as it (according to legend) was the form of runic writing that Ur used to direct the Ancient Dwarves to the Ancestral Homeland. 'Proud Writing' is based on a fairly simple system. All Dwarven letters are included. When a letter is succeeded by an 'R', whether that 'R' be the last letter in the word or itself is succeeded by some other letter, a combination letter is formed. The combination letters are presented in the table below, along with the basic (no 'R' succeeding) form. 'R' itself does not form combination letters with other Rs, and only the first succeeding 'R' is ever 'fused' into the combination letter (words like Eirr are fused thus: Eirr, where the green bolded letters are combined in Proud Writing). An 'R' without a preceding letter in a new word is always written in the basic form, regardless of whatever letter a previous word may have ended on. Double letters (i.e. Aa, Uu, Oo etc.) are always written as a single letter with a colon, i.e. A:, U:, O:, which reduces needed space. You can now see why Altr Sriftr may be more practical than Thikasriftr in some situations. The word Sriftr itself is only four letters long in Proud Writing, saving two letters, whereas all letters are written out independently in Thikasriftr. However, Proud Writing by necessity stands taller which may waste vertical space. Thikastriftr Linewriting is named as such because the letters are preferably written tightly together, between two horizontal lines which form a neat, almost riverlike flow to this particular form of writing. This is, however elegant, not necessary. Thikasriftr was supposedly invented by an imprisoned Dwarf who, attempting to save space on his prison wall, cut the 'stalks' off of the Proud Writing letters to create an entirely novel system of runes. This legend has not always benefited Linewriting. The most rare Dwarven letters are not included in Linewriting, instead 'J' is written as 'I' and 'P' as 'B'. Going by the latter convention, some suggest that the imprisoned Dwarf in question had a stuffy nose. 'R' is always written as an independent letter. Double letters (i.e. Aa, Uu, Oo etc.) are always written as a single letter with a colon, i.e. A:, U:, O:, which reduces needed space. When writing between two parallel horizontal lines, make certain that the letters come as close to each other as possible without crossing or merging. See the example in the table below: